Comments on: Sammy Sosa not invited to annual Cubs Conventionhttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/
Baseball. Baseball. And then a bit more baseball.Tue, 31 Mar 2015 21:25:25 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: louhudson23http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428802
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:24:34 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428802I think the sheer ridiculousness of those numbers is the best indication of how distorted the game became….thank goodness the madness is over and we are seeing baseball again…..
]]>By: jeffbbfhttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428532
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:25:46 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428532Don’t make it sound like Todd Walker is the attration – although he was a top prospect in his day and a decent player for the Cubs. I have had several items signed by Jenkins, Banks, Billy Williams, Santo, Sandburg, and a few others at the convention – and they were all pretty happy to do it. Nobody will miss Sosa for several reasons. The Cubs don’t want a bunch of fans yelling insults at Sosa and asking him to admit to using steroids at what has always been a pleasant, family-oriented event. I’m glad he wasn’t invited.
]]>By: Jeremy Thttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428507
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:51:17 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428507And here I am thinking that God just wanted to save the poor bastard from being a Cubs season ticket holder.
]]>By: Jeremy Thttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428502
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:48:23 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428502one of my favorite “random trivia” facts
]]>By: cubfan531http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428374
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:30:08 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428374Hey, now. I actually liked Todd Walker during his playing days.
]]>By: Old Gatorhttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428355
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:48:08 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428355I think it’s obvious why they didn’t invite him. Here’s a little story to illustrate the principle at hand, and it’s not corporate cowardice, ingratitude or embarrassment.

A famous Chicago plastic surgeon was walking home one night when he thought he saw a hunched-over human shape scurry into an alley and hide behind a dumpster. The surgeon, his curiosity piqued, took out his pen light and shone it into the alley – revealing a hideously deformed hunchbacked vagrant cowering among the detritus. He bore the scars, physical and psychic, of a lifetime of abuse, derision, rejection, cruelty.

The surgeon spoke gently, urging the vagrant not to be frightened. He told him that he was a world famous plastic surgeon and had pioneered techniques for correcting some of the most severe defects and deformities, and thought he might actually be able to help – at no charge, if the vagrant would sign some hold harmless documents and consent to be the subject of the surgeon’s new experimental procedures.

Well, what did he have to lose? He went back to the surgeon’s upper Michigan Avenue clinic and there followed months of excruciating procedures – clavicles sawed through and reset; spinal rods and braces implanted, orbital bones replaced with rayon implants, septum replaced with a plastic wedge, you name it – and the vagrant, when not under heavy sedation, knew only horrible aches and pains when allowed a few moments of consciousness.

Then, after all of this suffering, it was time for the bandages to come off. The surgeon proudly held up a hand mirror to the vagrant revealing….a pretty decent looking guy who could stand up straight and enjoy a heretofore unimaginable range of motion. He just couldn’t believe it. He asked the surgeon how he could ever thank him but the surgeon refused to be compensated. He noted that he had filmed and recorded the entire process and might well win himself a Nobel Prize in medicine for them, and said that no thanks were necessary.

And to top it all off, he handed the former vagrant an address and phone number for the new job he had arranged for him at a medical insurance office, and the key to the new apartment on the North Side near Wrigley Filed that he had acquired for him and for which he had paid the lease off for an entire year, and a set of season tickets to see the Cubs. The former vagrant, flabbergasted, walked out of the surgeon’s clinic and out into a beautiful sunlit afternoon for the first time in more years than he could count. Children were playing in the park across the street. A spring breeze stirred the crocuses. Smooth jazz issued through a window somewhere nearby. The former vagrant drew a deep, hearty breath and began crossing the street….when suddenly, a screaming firetruck careened around the corner and, unable to stop, squashed the former vagrant like a bug.

So this former vagrant goes up to heaven. He arrives at the gate and snarls at St. Peter, angrily demanding an audience with God immediately. God is summoned and asks what the problem is. The vagrant is shaking with fury. You bring me into this world deformed, hideous, crippled – you subject me to a life of humiliation and derision, poverty and suffering – and then you subject me to months of agonizing surgical procedures – and then, just as I am given a decent normal life, you snuff me out like an insect! Why??????

God blinks at the vagrant a couple of times and then smack his forehead. “Oh, I am so sorry,” he says. I didn’t recognize you!

]]>By: jwbiiihttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428308
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:36:16 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428308The only thing he would have to do to get from the bar to his bed is push a few elevator buttons, so that would be good for him. Those room key cards can be tricky after a few, though.
]]>By: contraryguyhttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428263
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:36:33 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428263I can’t find a recent pic of him but news items suggest he’s, eh, “back in black” now. Something about a skin product he was using that bleached him out.

Still seems kinda cold for the Cubs to diss him though.

]]>By: stlouis1baseballhttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428262
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:34:18 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428262Absolutely Gordon. As where Bud and MLB. All in the name of moving turnstiles!
]]>By: fanofevilempirehttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428225
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:07:03 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428225pure, no additives?
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Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:06:26 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428223nice……………
]]>By: fanofevilempirehttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428222
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:06:09 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428222everyone knows Theos stance on roids, do you mis-remember saux players
never ever used roids on his watch, as per Mitchell report.
]]>By: Gordonhttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428216
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:03:27 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428216PEDs or not, he helped the Tribune Company fill that stadium every game, even when they were crappy…which was most of the time.

I realize the Trib no longer owns the Cubs, but he made a lot of people very rich, including himself. They were all happy to look the other way as long as the $ was flowing their way.

They should have invited him.

]]>By: kirkvanhoutenhttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428206
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:58:16 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428206” While in Chicago he led the league twice in both homers”

Sosa, of course, hit 60 or more home runs three times…and did not lead the league any of those seasons. (He lead the league in 2000 with 50 and 49 and 2002). That’s the 3rd, 5th and 6th highest single season home run totals of all time.

]]>By: paperlionshttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428204
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:55:28 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428204I just have no idea what to call the color he currently appears to be…..he looks like a hybrid zombie/wax sculpture.
]]>By: historiophiliachttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428201
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:53:57 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428201What is it w/ the white people making fun of the color?
]]>By: paperlionshttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428190
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:45:27 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428190That sweater would look a lot better on him if his skin was a color that occurred in nature.
]]>By: ironmike778http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428188
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:43:40 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428188Sosa = Pure Scum
]]>By: jwbiiihttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428176
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:33:22 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428176Will Mark Grace be in the lobby bar?
]]>By: historiophiliachttp://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/17/sammy-sosa-not-invited-to-annual-cubs-convention/comment-page-1/#comment-428168
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:17:55 +0000http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=290947#comment-428168What? Have they *seen* his ochre sweater? He would totally class up the joint.
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